


ace

by kamisero



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: M/M, angst???, ft karasuno, platonic kagehina, prosthetic au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 02:33:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5480000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamisero/pseuds/kamisero
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hinata told himself he would be normal. Through elementary school and middle school, he was just Hinata Shoyo, the orange-headed boy with a loud voice and more fire in his heart than a dragon. As if there was no ache in his left side, as if he didn't grit his teeth every time he ran.</p><p>And soon, he had convinced both himself and everyone around him.</p><p>Hinata Shoyo was strong. He would not fall again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ace

**Author's Note:**

> listen to this. --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvbErM6ZTBA&feature=youtu.be&t=39s
> 
> based on this au --> http://imaginethehaikyuukids.tumblr.com/post/87284190184/imagine-disabled-hinata-with-a-prosthetic-leg-he

**Hinata doesn't remember the crash that took his left leg.**

He was only three, after all, and what three-year-old holds onto memories of a blackened, twisted night?

(His throat still hurts when he tries to recall. He thinks he screamed a lot that evening. His mother confirms it.)

He _does_ remember the first time he got a prosthetic.

It had taken weeks of "here, hold still please" and _annoying, **annoying!**_ visits to the doctor before the fantastical device arrived at their home. Hinata didn't think it was anything special, but his mother had broken down in tears and lifted him in the air, saying, "You're going to walk, Shoyo, you're going to walk!" And if his mother was going to be happy, so would he.

Hinata remembers the way the straps fit around his weird stump and laced their way over his skin for the first time. He remembers how it felt to stand on his own two feet and _move._

The family had an entire photo album from that day, featuring a certain carrot-headed toddler and an unborn sister.

It wasn't all rainbows and unicorns, however; running quickly hurt like hell, and the device was a pain to take off at night with his chubby fingers and fumbling feet. His mother still had to take him to the doctor once a month for a checkup. Hinata didn't know any other world; when asked why one of his legs looked weird, he responded with a confused "Did I put it on wrong?"

_Eventually, he grew up._

He learned that he was different, bizarre, a curiosity - that most children didn't live their lives wondering when they would have to buy a larger leg, or if one of the straps was getting a little loose. That almost all the kids his age were more worried about the sports game on TV last night than whether or not they could pay the medical bills for this year. That he was a burden, but his mother and sister still loved him the same.

Hinata concluded that he wasn't special in any way but physically. He was like the others. They were all the same in spirit, just not in body.

Hinata told himself he would be normal. Through elementary school and middle school, he was just Hinata Shoyo, the orange-headed boy with a loud voice and more fire in his heart than a dragon. As if there was no ache in his left side, as if he didn't grit his teeth every time he ran.

And soon, he had convinced both himself and everyone around him.

Hinata Shoyo was strong. He would not fall again.

 

\---

 

Kageyama brought it all crashing down around him.

That first and only game in middle school against his cold steel eyes told Hinata that he was weak. He wasn't good enough. There would always be that massive, towering wall over his head, preventing him from soaring like he desperately wanted to be.

_"Where have you been all these years?"_

Hinata needed to be stronger. How could he play volleyball with such a overpowering King if he couldn't match up right?

For the first time in several years, he cried.

Hinata sobbed alone in his room until he was dry and ready to change.

If he couldn't tear the wall down, he would jump, higher and higher until he could fly over its hulking frame and into the sunlight and brazen cheers.

He would be the ace. He would play until the end.

Kageyama couldn't stop him.

 

\---

 

The first day of high school was not what Hinata expected it to be.

His prosthetic leg took ages to put on in the morning (he refused to let his mother attach it for him, even though his hands were shaking). He was so tense, he barely had any breakfast before leaping on the bus and bounding to a seat.

Now, Kageyama was here.

Hinata's jaw dropped like a stone, and his leg throbbed.

_All those hours spent thinking he could defeat his one-time rival._

_All those times he raced upstairs, yelling furiously into his pillow._

_All those practices, aimed like bullets at the setter, useless._

_Useless, useless, useless._

He shouldn't have been so naive.

"Why are you here?" he spits out, stepping backwards. The ravenet glances at him.

"...why..."

 

\---

 

That was half a year ago, and Hinata was surprised.

Kageyama, once a stolid, fearsome opponent, was now one of his best friends and partner in-game.

The middle blocker remembered the first time they did their quick strike. How he had felt so complete, so worthy. How he felt that he was finally capable of being an ace, the number one.

Hinata was a game changer, but he sure as hell didn't feel like it now, sitting in the locker room in the middle of practice.

He stared down at his stump leg and growled angrily. It was acting up. Today, of all days. The last official practice before the Tokyo trip...

Alone, he checked the prosthetic carefully, running his fingers across important spots.

No, it seemed fine. It was just him.

Time passed like a dream, but the pain didn't go away.

The door opened with a creak.

"Hinata? Are you in here?"

The orange-haired teen looked up, eyes red and jaw wobbling.

"T-takeda-sensei...?"

The teacher rounded the corner and froze.

There was half a leg lying on the floor, and Hinata was crying.

"Haaaaaaa?!"

He was loud enough for the rest of the team to hear, and footsteps ran towards them frantically.

"Takeda-sensei? Hinata?"

The short middle blocker lowered his head and wiped a hand furiously across his face.

"Wait, that's a leg?! What the heck?"

Loud voices battered against Hinata's increasingly-frail mentality. He shuddered. Was he going to be kicked off the team? He knew people with...disabilities...weren't allowed to play often. He didn't want to leave...

He looked up to see the entire team crowded around him.

"Please let me keep playing..." he croaks out, throat raw.

They're silent, and his shoulders fell.

 

Daichi moves first.

"Get Hinata to the nurse's office! I'll carry him!" Warm arms wrap themselves around his figure, bringing him to the captain's chest. Suga's gray hair bobs up beside him, along with one of his gentle hands, mussing his hair and calming him. Hinata chokes out a sob.

A tall figure haloed in black and blue is holding his leg. He's not sure, but he thinks it's Kageyama. Someone opens the locker room door - Yamaguchi - and holds it for the procession now moving through it like a herd of buffalo.

"Shh, Hinata, it'll be okay."

He wonders if this was how he recuperated in the hospital after the car crash. Family and friends and safety, forming a soft cocoon around him...

His vision is foggy, both from the pain and the tears. Nishinoya and Tanaka shout at people still in the halls; when they reach the nurse's office, people are staring.

He feels himself be lowered onto one of the cots. Sterile, white.

"I'll call his mother. What's her number?"

Hinata manages to tell Takeda-sensei without stuttering, and Ukai replaces the teacher at his side.

"I'm sorry, Hinata. Really. I didn't know."

He grins weakly up at the coach.

"It's okay. I wanted to play."

Ukai pats him on the back.

"I'm proud of you."

And just when Hinata thinks the team can't get any kinder, Kageyama sits down on the hard chair.

"..."

The setter squeezes his hand.

"Hinata..."

He squeezes back. Kageyama's hand is warm, he thinks hazily. Not the hand of a solitary king.

And even Tsukishima doesn't say anything snarky, because Hinata is strong, and Hinata has persevered. He may have lost this battle, but he will win the next, and the next, and the next.

Hinata falls asleep, basking in the glow of his teammates.

He is the victor.

He is his own ace.


End file.
